Golden Globe Awards 2015: Viewing Party

Yesterday I shared with you my picks for the best dressed at this year's Golden Globe Awards. Today I want to share with you the details of the viewing party I hosted for the broadcast.

Every year since graduating from college, I have hosted friends for the Globes, Oscars and Emmys. Growing up, my mom used to host all the other moms on our street for awards shows, and I love continuing the tradition in my own home.

I woke up Sunday morning and headed to DryBar in Chestnut Hill. I was meeting a friend for a morning of pampering. I was excited to have glamorous hair for such a star studded occasion.

Here is a shot of me right after I had my hair washed:

And here is the finished product!

Those DryBar stylists are absolute magicians!

With movie star hair in full effect, I headed home to set up for the big night.

I have a table in my entry way where I like to begin my party decor. I think it's fun for people to get a hint of the vibe right when they step into the house.

Over the course of the weekend, I stopped at three different places in search of red roses. I love having fresh flowers for special occasions and red roses are always my go-to for award show parties. I like them as a nod to the red carpet. Unfortunately, each place I went either didn't have them or the blooms were so open that they would have wilted in a day or two. Defeated, I settled on this arrangement from Trader Joe's.

To accompany the flowers, I added star shaped confetti to the table, which wound up casting a bunch of dancing reflections onto the wall.

In the next room, I set up a concession stand on the coffee table. In the past, I have provided individual candy bags or tubs, but while searching for a different serving piece, I rediscovered this pink flower tray from Boutique Fabulous in Inman Square. It was perfect for the mix of movie theater candy I wanted to offer.

On the coffee table I also placed gold confetti dotted napkins and coasters, a birthday gift from a friend. If you'd like to order some for yourself, they are from Kate Spade.

Moving into the dining room, I set up my sideboard as a bar cart. You may remember this "Time to drink champagne and dance on the table" sign from my golden birthday bash. Yup, I still have it up over a year later.

I covered the sideboard with a navy and gold table runner from West Elm. For the wine, soda and ice I put out my favorite gold tray, another West Elm gem.

Sticking with the red carpet theme, the dining room was decorated with red and gold accents.

On the right side of the table I set up a dip bar.

I served three kinds of dips: whipped feta cheese, beet tzatziki and spinach and artichoke. The first two are from Sofra and the last is from Target. What can I say? They make the best version.

I wrote the names of each dip on these fun placemats from Kitchen Papers.

I put out more of the Kate Spade napkins to accompany the dips, as well as some Hollywood plates from iParty. I bought these for last year's party and still had plenty left over.

To add some drama to the table, the center pieces were two gold lanterns. I bought these years ago from Target and I still love them.

As an added bonus, the throw pillows I bought for my window seat during the holiday season matched perfectly with the night's Golden Globe decor.

Lastly, my friend Dustin (my party planning hero) taught me that when hosting in your home, no room should be overlooked, including the bathroom.

So I added some red stones to my sink and some black and gold paper napkins for drying one's hands.

For the finishing touch, I lit two gold candles behind the sink.

When my friends arrived at 6:30pm, we settled in to watch the red carpet. Just as the show was starting at 8:00pm, my friend (and very talented chef) served each of us a bowl of her homemade minestrone soup with a slice of cheesy garlic bread. Check out both of those recipes here.

The show began with co-hostesses Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's monologue. A few of my favorite moments of the night included:

Tina and Amy's crack at George Clooney winning the lifetime achievement award when his new wife, Amal, is clearly more accomplished

JK Simmons winning a much deserved trophy for his role in "Whiplash"

John Legend and Common winning for original song in the movie "Selma" (and everyone flipping out over Prince as the presenter)

"Transparent" taking home prizes for best comedy and best actor

"Boyhood" collecting hardware for best drama, best director and best supporting actress

Greer Grammer, who I love on MTV's "Awkward," serving as Miss Golden Globe

George Clooney acknowledging his wife by saying, "It's a humbling thing when you find someone to love. Even better if you've been waiting your whole life. And when your life is 53 years . . . Amal, whatever alchemy it is that brought us together, I couldn't be more proud to be your husband." Swoon!

Also, after watching Showtime's "The Affair" win several categories, I clearly need to watch that!

With the Golden Globes behind us, my sole focus is on throwing my best Oscar party yet. You may recall that upping my Oscar party game is one of my 2015 new year's resolutions. The show will air on Sunday, February 22nd, so I have five weeks to plan!

I look forward to Oscar night all year long and boy was it worth the wait this year! Sunday's Academy Awards were some of the most entertaining yet and as you already know, ended with an epic blunder.
I knew something was wrong when a short, balding man in a headset was bobbing and weaving through the La La Land crowd. For a brief moment I thought it might be part of a Jimmy Kimmel gag, but once I saw the look of concern (or maybe it was horror) on Emma Stone's face, I knew there was an actual problem.

One of the things I love most about working at an advertising agency is that I am surrounded by creative people. Not only do they kick butt at their day jobs, but almost all of my coworkers also have passion projects outside of work. They are photographers, jewelry makers, wedding invitation designers, musicians and more.
One such coworker is my friend Kelly, the owner of a small business called Toyidermy. It's like taxidermy, but instead of animals, she creates with toys.